A fling with gay romance

I NEEDED A BREAK. I SET ASIDE MY EPIC FANTASY AS I WAS NEARLY PULLING MY HAIR OUT OVER THE REWRITES. I WANTED TO TRY SOMETHING NEW, GET MY CREATIVE SPARKLE BACK. I SAT DOWN TO READ ONE OF THE SHORT ROMANCE NOVELS I COULD DEVOUR IN A DAY AND IT STARTED OUT WITH AN IDEA - WHO WOULD SAVE A KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOUR? WHAT WAS HIS STORY? THE STORY FLEW FROM MY FINGERS. I ONLY PAUSED TO QUESTION MY LIFE CHOICES WHEN I WROTE SEX SCENES. KNOWING YOUR BIGGEST FAN AND GRANDMOTHER WILL READ ANYTHING HELPS, BUT SO DO HAVING THOSE FRIENDS YOU CAN POSE ANATOMY QUESTIONS TO OR OTHER MYTHICAL THINGS.

It was an easy decision to self-publish. I control my rights and have a higher royalty cut. As a newbie to the industry I only published exclusively with Amazon but the other big publishers for indie authors at this time are Nook, Kobo, Apple Books, and Google Play. Amazon allows authors to enrol their books into Kindle Unlimited so that readers with a subscription can read “for free” but authors earn money based on pages read.

This was my first time publishing and this weird sense of calm washed over me as I clicked the button and waited for my book to be live on the store. I didn’t spend a lot on marketing, and I rushed a bit with building my newsletter. I was prepared for the upfront costs, I have been watching and researching the industry for years, but still it felt surreal knowing my book was being bought and read by people around the world.

Romance is the highest earning genre, and Gay or MM Romance is a hungry niche. FF romance is even more niche but still on an upward trend. With the 2018 boom of Reverse Harem romances more and more polyamorous books have also crept onto the scene.

I have seen such healthier depictions of relationships, BDSM, trans sexuality, and disability representation whether it be MM, FF, MMF, MFM, or Harem romances. MF books are getting there too.

I published The Honest Knight as Annie Lindwurm at the end of March and what was once the start of a trilogy is now a standalone short romance novel. Going forward I’ll be writing Romantic Fantasy so I can have my mix of love and magic. I also think Arthur, Lancelot, and Guinevere should be together, just saying...

I recommend ‘M/M Book Rec’ Facebook group for all your romance reads.

The Honest Knight by Annie Lindwurm is available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.

Want to start writing romance? Check out Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes.